I have a single-story ranch with a patio right outside the business end of the house where the bathrooms are. The septic tank isn’t far away either, about ten feet from the bathrooms. In the summer when sitting out on the patio it can get pretty ripe. I have heard some suggestions about extending the pipes of the vents while others have suggested a charcoal filter (none to be found so far in a brief search). What is the best solution to this stink?
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Find online articles on options for countertops, wood-boring bits, ductless heat pumps, tighter miters, fences, and much more.
Featured Video
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
According to KD lang you should eat less meat.
My dad put a pint mason jar over his vent pipe and everything worked fine. I think it is improper plumbing wise but some variation on that might work.
According to KD lang you should eat less meat.
Using one of Boss Hoggs tag lines, I didn't work my way to the top of the food chain to eat veggies.
Also, PETA= people eating tasty animals.
Thanks Boss for these.I'm all here....... 'cause I'm not all there!
Ah !
But grasshoppuh...
You didn't work your way there.
It was handed to you. You are one of the priviledged.
Seems you were born with a greasy spoon in your mouth.
; )
Quittin' Time
Callin' me a grease monkey?????
Why I otta!!!!!
I'm all here....... 'cause I'm not all there!
According to KD lang you should eat less meat.<<
what a hypocrite she is, she has eaten more ####(cats) than we've had hot dinners!
Move the patio.
The only solution for that that I've heard as a definite solution came from someone here. He put in a whole house waste line trap. Right in the four inch line after it left the house, I think.
Excellence is its own reward!
And it didn't plug? Seems like the grease from the kitchen sink would eventually build up in that trap's bottom. But I guess if there's enough stuff coming through, it'll push whatever decided to build up out. Then again, the hot water coming through...
It was a thread here on BT where this question had been discussed. After several months he resurrected it again with a report that this is what he had done to fix the problem. That was spring or early summer, I think, so no time yet for grease to test it..
Excellence is its own reward!
I think that the problem lies within the septic tank...no pun intended ;o)!
The system is an anerobic digester of organic materials and a byproduct of that is methane. The septic tank is probably cast concrete with a cast cleanout cap and cast in & out flow diverter caps...all three designed to be removed, but are far from being tightly sealed.
In the summer heat the rate of reaction for the septic is at it's peak....so is the production of methane. Hence the "Big Stink" on the patio.
There is already a baffle/trap on the inlet side of the septic tank, so adding one in line may have little effect. Pulling the cleanouts and flow divert cap and reseating them with a sealant that is removable for inspection/pumping.
Other thoughts......when is the last time the tank was pumped?
.......could the leach field be full? How old is the system?
.......replace the old system with an areated digester ($4000)
.......go to army surplus and buy gas masks
........................Iron Helix
> .......go to army surplus and buy gas masks
.......... go to air force surplus and put an afterburner on the stink pipe. ;-)
-- J.S.
Try a local plumbing house and ask for a "vacuum breaker" type fitting, rated for outdoors and put this on your outdoor vent pipe.
Can you extend the vent pipe up about 3 more feet? - just a coupler and some pipe. try it it may help.
or reroute the vent inside the attic to another area
What are those things you put on a vent pipe in your attic? Aren't they called a "studor" vent, or something like that?
Cutting of the vent in the attic and using one of those might work, *IF* your local codes allow them.
Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped.
The vent pipe is not your problem. For smell (sewage gas) to wafting from it and over your patio, there would have to be another source for air to be entering your DWV system. Your vent pipe is probably the only point the system is open to atmosphere if it is done correctly - sinks/lavs trapped under the bowl, toilet trapped in the fixture itself, baths/showers trapped in floor.
The advice to pump your septic tank is a good one if not done recently. You didn't mention soils or where you're from. A change of code in my area - and a good one - is to require a perimeter drain tile around the septic leach field. What this does is prevent surface water from precipitation running over the leach field (by code here five 100' runs of perforated pipe running parallel off of a small concrete distribution box set off the septic tank) and saturating the ground, preventing the soil from taking up the leachate from the septic system. It is effective and easily accomplished - 4" corrugated perforated black pipe sunk 18" below ground around the field.
Your smell is mostly likely coming from the ground that the pipe runs in. This could be because the septic tank is full and unprocessed sewage is running through the tile in the leach field, or the ground is unable to take up enough effluent and it is working its way to the surface, to be attacked by microbes in the sunlight and offgassing. So make sure you have good drainage in the soil - most states have a means to test soil for suitability as a septic field for free.
Code has also changed here to require a "dosing system" set-up on septic systems. This involves a concrete tank between the septic tank and the distribution box. Instead of effluent continually leaching through the field, the dose tank has a pump on a float switch. So it builds up a level of effluent, and then pumps it all at once into the septic field. By doing this the ground dries in between cycles. It is because we have terrible clays for septic.
remodeler
( The septic tank isn't far away either, about ten feet from the bathrooms )
Is that according to code?
Here septic tanks need to be 150 feet from the house. Wells need to be 150 feet the other direction of the house.
The septic and drainfield are old and not up to current code. The septic was pumped about a year and a half ago just before I moved in and has been a problem since. I don't know about before I lived here -it's not the kind of thing seller like to talk about. I think the stink is coming right out of the tank, given the proximity to the house. It sounds like a trap right outside the house before the tank would be the way to go. Eventually the whole system will have to be upgraded if/when I move on my plans to do a major remodel on the house. The property, by the way, is in the now very soggy NW near Seattle.
Code here just went from ten feet out from foundation to requiring twelve feet from a foundation to a septic tank. Tank and field need to be 100 feet from a well but variances can be had.
A septic tank should never stink! Unless you open the lid, of course. All effluent and solids should remain inside the tank. If there is smell arising from the ground in the immediate vicinity of the tank, the trap will do you no good, you have a leak in the tank or in the lines to and from it. It is very common for frost to unhook a drain line. I found this out when i dug mine up two years ago and got to talking with some installers and inspectors.
Another possiblity with an old one is that it is a steel tank that has seen better days or a bad concrete one with a crack or even a plastic one that someone dropped and thought they fixed.
I would get a shovel out in the spring when the ground thaws and chase that mole to find out where the waste water is going..
Excellence is its own reward!
Had the problem at my house. It is partially caused by the acidity of the septage. Mine was cured with baking soda, good old Arm&Hammer. One pound flushed down the toilet. A few pounds cures the problem and then maintain it at one pound a month. It is also supposed to be good for the system.
The methane is lighter than air and should waffed up. The sulfur compounds which give the fragrance are heavier than air and waffs down. The baking soda neutralizes the sulfur compound. Give it a try, it is an inexpensive solution that worked for me.
Thanks Kevin, I'll give that one a try. Simple, cheap and no digging involved!